One of the Bay Area’s two Major League Baseball teams is looking at building the first 3S gondola in the United States. The $123 million system would transport up to 6,000 passengers per hour and direction between downtown Oakland and a new waterfront ballpark, becoming one of the highest capacity lift systems in the world in 2023. Thirteen or so 35 passenger cabins would depart approximately every 21 seconds at full speed, yielding a three minute trip from the BART regional train network to the stadium near Jack London Square. The gondola would be feature just one tower between stations thanks to tricable technology, which can traverse large spans while achieving high throughput.

A’s President Dave Kaval noted at a Saturday press conference, “I think anyone’s who’s sat in traffic in the Bay Area, which is everybody, realizes there’s a need for new, innovative transportation options.” He continued, “In terms of transportation systems, we feel [a gondola] is a great investment and a great way to open up this part of the city and remove that original barrier of the 880 that cut off the waterfront from downtown Oakland.” Over the first ten years of operation, the gondola could generate $685 million in economic benefits through construction work, new jobs, increased taxable sales and time savings for commuters according to a study completed by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The lift would service an estimated on million riders a year with an operating cost of $4.6 million.

Oakland is already home to two cable-driven transportation systems, both built by Doppelmayr. A monocable detachable gondola links new and old sections of the Oakland Zoo and a $484 million ropeway people mover links the Oakland Airport to a nearby BART station. The Athletics’ 3S would be the first installation of its kind in America, unless the Los Angeles Dodgers beat them to the punch. “We are in discussion with a few companies and plan to select our partner soon,” says Kaval.

Faced with the possibility of losing its operating lease completely, Sunshine Village reluctantly agrees to new guidelines that remove the proposed Goat’s Eye tramway, Bye Bye Bowl expansion and Wildside lift from future consideration. A second lift in the existing gondola corridor, Goat’s Eye II, Lookout, Hayes Hill and Lower Meadow Park expansions are still possible.

Environmental groups and Squaw Alpine are still sparring over the proposed California Express gondola.

Resorts across the Pacific Northwest come to the aid of Hurricane Ridge season pass holders, who lost a month of their season due to the government shutdown.

A rainbow shipment of CWA cabins is now stateside, earmarked for the skies above Central Florida. Construction continues on the three line Disney Skyliner system, which is set to open this fall and sure to become a showcase for high capacity lift technology.

In addition to the row of cabins now staged at the Caribbean Beach hub, cabins have also been spotted in the Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Pop Century and Art of Animation stations. While the gondolas are covered in protective wraps, you can see they come in a variety of colors with Disney character art on the windows.

There are interesting looking electrical boxes on the cabin roofs. I’m curious to see what sort of infotainment the Skyliner carriers feature, if any. It does not appear that power is derived from solar panels, as is the case with some other urban gondolas.

Construction lighting at Disney Skyliner Epcot station. Note the yellow nylon ropes, these will pull a light wire rope through. Then the thick Gondola rope will be pulled through. pic.twitter.com/NALdDKedqt

For the third time in four months, a major European lift has been knocked out of service by fire, this time in the Pyrenees of France. A Doppelmayr six pack called “Le Family” ignited Monday evening at a mid-sized ski resort called La Pierre-Saint-Martin. The station that burned is the return and included a parking facility for all 80 chairs. The mile long lift cost €7 million to build back in 2014. Like many lifts in France, much of the terminal was clad with wood. Due to the intensity of the fire, the haul rope appears to have snapped with chairs on the line. Thankfully, no one was injured as the lift had already closed for the day when the fire started.

Around 40 percent of the ski area is now inaccessible, though the rest of the mountain will remain open. The caused of the fire is still under investigation. Back in September, a fire destroyed two aerial tramways near Chamonix and on December 3rd, a blaze damaged the bottom terminal of a 10 passenger gondola in Zillertal, Austria.